Mull Campus protestors make themselves loud in Craignure

Mull Community Councillor and mother Emily Greenhalgh, who helped organise the protest, said: "I was thinking a dozen people would be a good turnout, just 20 would be amazing. 

"It was a really inconvenient time after all, it makes you question why the council do events at times like this!

"I had a playlist prepared, I baked cakes, and I had a megaphone, everybody was chanting, I got quite into it actually!"

Fellow organiser and father Rob Claxton-Ingham said: "What worried me about this process was that it would reopen the scars from 50 years ago.

"There were people [at the protest] who remembered going to high school in Bunessan when the change happened, and then going to Oban."

Bunessan’s original school, which included a secondary department, closed in 1968. Only six secondary pupils were enrolled at the time, but the school was limited to providing courses in homecraft.

There were talks back then about building a central high school too, but the council was split between a central location and Tobermory, leading to the provost casting the deciding vote.

But unlike 1968, the community is not ready to back down and are preparing a legal challenge to the council. 

"This is just the beginning" continued Rob.

"We hoped the council meeting would make the right decision but now we’re obliged to go down this legal route. 

"It’s a complex process and a shame we have to use it to get what the island needs."